THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412010013
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
You always hear how teachers and coaches keep telling students and young adults not to use drugs, not to smoke and not to dip snuff. But why in the world would any student listen to a coach or teacher when they do it themselves?
I was flipping channels on Nov. 19 and stopped on Channel 23 (WCTV) because a high-school football game was on. When I realized it was not the high school I wanted to see, I flipped again. But just as I pushed the button, my eye caught a Deep Creek coach. What stood out most was the knot I saw in his mouth. I switched back quickly and saw another coach with the same knot, but he was spitting.
OK, so there are two coaches (that I saw) spitting what appeared to be tobacco on the sidelines at a high-school football game with hundreds of students, players, cheerleaders and adults watching, not to mention Channel 23, which in turn will show hundreds more students, players, cheerleaders and adults at home that these men don't mind using a substance that is not allowed on Virginia schoolgrounds in front of all these people.
These men are looked up to by these kids who see them chewing. Do you think it doesn't faze them?
Well, some it probably wont; but when I went to high school (not too long ago), I saw one coach start dipping in front of his team, and about three weeks later 65 percent of his team was dipping, in and out of school. I asked a friend of mine on the team why he started, and he answered, ``Because it's cool.''
These men have got to stop and realize that this is not the NFL, NBA or major-league baseball. These are high-school athletes who have very impressionable minds. Teachers and coaches need to take that into consideration. They have got to stop and think every time they light up a cigarette in the teachers' lounge and enter the classroom smelling like smoke, or every time a coach puts a wad in his mouth at a game.
Yes, they have a right to use tobacco, but if they are truly dedicated to their teaching job, they will stop and think of the students first.
This is not just a problem at Deep Creek. All Chesapeake schools have this problem in one form or another. Something has got to be done now; for the students' sake, this has got to stop.
VANESSA R. CARTER
Chesapeake, Nov. 21, 1994 by CNB